(Topic ID: 79498)

How to turn on music (ala Tron) by powering up my game room

By Starbuck77

10 years ago


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  • 23 posts
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  • Latest reply 10 years ago by Starbuck77
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    #1 10 years ago

    Ok here is the scenario. In my game room I have a bank of 3 light switches (all next to each other) that power a dedicated circuit to each wall of the game room, one switch for each wall. The 4th wall is access to the laundry room, closet, and a bathroom which is on the house circuit. I usually turn all three switches on at the same time to power up my room. Currently what I usually do when I am in the room is turn on the power, go to my ipad, plug it in to some decent speakers and get the music going that way.

    The question is, has anyone set something up so that when they go into their game room and power up their games, music gets powered on with flipping on power to the room, kinda like in Tron? I know this is sorta specific but I have to believe this is possible.

    Any suggestions would be great, and yes, I know I am being lazy by trying to get around a simple step of plugging in my iPad and playing the music, but I think there is a certain wow factor to turning the games on and music gets pumping along with the power up....

    #2 10 years ago

    I'm going to do it with a Control 4 system, but that's overkill if that's all you want to automate.

    #4 10 years ago

    Not high-tech & perhaps wasteful, but could achieve goal by separating the components.
    -Have your mp3 player, computer, CD changer, whatever, on & playing via the house circuit.
    -Plug your head unit, amp, speakers, whatever into one of the switched circuits - so that when you flip the switch the speakers activate & you start hearing the tunes that have been playing all along.

    #5 10 years ago

    thanks for the sugestions guys. That first option seems ok if they were not still in trying to start up. Ozuba's idea is something that might be possible also. I was thinking I could do something with a Sirius xm reciever or something and have it all power up when I filp the switch, but that would be a fairly expensive test to buy the reciever and home kit just to test if it works.....Any other ideas?

    #6 10 years ago

    I have a jukebox on the switched circuit with my pins. Powers on at the same time as the pins and starts playing.

    #7 10 years ago

    You could also do something like a Raspberry Pi, write a script so when it boots linux it goes into a MP3 player randomly playing either a network location or stuff on a USB hard drive attached to it.

    That would be easy enough, and relatively cheap.

    #8 10 years ago

    I have a PC based touchscreen Jukebox. The software runs on startup and plays music. I built it with an old PC and a POS touch screen from ebay for $85. I use an arcade button on the wall to power it on, but you could easily add it to your game room circuit. I bought some in ceiling speakers from Monoprice for short money.

    #9 10 years ago
    Quoted from Shredso:

    I have a PC based touchscreen Jukebox. The software runs on startup and plays music. I built it with an old PC and a POS touch screen from ebay for $85. I use an arcade button on the wall to power it on, but you could easily add it to your game room circuit. I bought some in ceiling speakers from Monoprice for short money.

    I would love to see what you did. Any more information you'd share?

    #10 10 years ago

    If you have a decent radio station it would be simple to do with a switched power outlet. But I am really interested in some of the other options!

    #11 10 years ago
    Quoted from ReallifePin:

    I would love to see what you did. Any more information you'd share?

    This is an auction for a similar screen.
    ebay.com link: ELO 15 VGA LCD Kiosk Touchscreen Touch Monitor WORKING

    I made a frame out of window molding. There is a closet on the other side of the wall with a computer. Arcade button turns it on and off and a volume control. It's running eJukebox for software.

    There are probably better monitor and software choices now. I made this a long time ago.

    2014-02-05 13.18.44.jpg2014-02-05 13.18.44.jpg
    #12 10 years ago

    Thanks.

    That's really cool! Going to look into this.

    #13 10 years ago

    raspberry pi. You could do a motion sesnor, or light switch/relay to start up the stuff. Play off of a SD card or media server.

    #14 10 years ago
    Quoted from jfh:

    I'm going to do it with a Control 4 system, but that's overkill if that's all you want to automate.

    i have C-4 and u can add motion and what ever else you can think of, unless your doing full house automation it is mega overkill. a basic install starts around 25k. i think a motion senser to a dedicated media player (PC) could do it easy enough.

    #15 10 years ago
    Quoted from Shredso:

    This is an auction for a similar screen.
    ebay.com link » Elo 15 Vga Lcd Kiosk Touchscreen Touch Monitor Working
    I made a frame out of window molding. There is a closet on the other side of the wall with a computer. Arcade button turns it on and off and a volume control. It's running eJukebox for software.
    There are probably better monitor and software choices now. I made this a long time ago.

    2014-02-05 13.18.44.jpg 141 KB

    Wow great stuff. I have been looking to do a PC jukebox in my basement for a while now and didn't know what program to use. I will check out the eJukebox program.

    #16 10 years ago
    Quoted from ls1chris:

    i have C-4 and u can add motion and what ever else you can think of, unless your doing full house automation it is mega overkill. a basic install starts around 25k.

    Maybe at one time that was true, but now you can do a basic C4 system for a few thousand. I have a pretty complicated system being installed and it isn't anywhere near $25k.

    #17 10 years ago
    Quoted from jfh:

    Maybe at one time that was true, but now you can do a basic C4 system for a few thousand. I have a pretty complicated system being installed and it isn't anywhere near $25k.

    depends how deep you go i guess, i did the full show here.

    #18 10 years ago

    I did exactly what you are talking about. Heres a behind the scenes video of my gameroom

    #19 10 years ago

    And I also just added some arcade buttons aroubd the gameroom that play different audio clips including classic game sounds and tron.

    #20 10 years ago

    Any sort of set up should work where the music is always playing and the sound system gets turned on and off by the switch. In my work shop, I have an iPod always playing and one oft he light switches powers up the receiver that runs it.

    #21 10 years ago

    How about an Ubunto Live distro on a thumb drive plugged into WOZ so when it is powered it boots linux and goes straight to a jukebox media player app?

    #22 10 years ago

    Thanks for all the great sugestions...it's greatly appreciated! Thunder you have one sweet setup down there

    #23 10 years ago

    So I ended up trying the Sirius xm receiver plus home-kit. It works exactly like it would if you were in your car. As long as I don't turn it "off" before I power down the room it will come on along with the rest of the room when I switch the room on. It works perfectly. Ended up going with a music only subscription for 10 bucks a month since I don't think that talk radio will be much of a hit down there....fairly low tech but it's good enough for me and it's also nice since the music will stay relatively fresh and I won't be playing the same "arcade playlist" over and over and over again...

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